Tell us about your early cricket journey leading to your professional career.
From as early as I can remember my weekends were filled with going away with my dad and watching him play cricket. My dad used to play club cricket for a team called Zodiac CC and quite often I would go and watch and when they were short I’d play. As a 12-13-year-old playing men’s cricket in that league was a significant step towards my development.
I hadn’t really played any age group cricket before I was 15, but the grounding I got from playing in the parks, at home in the garden with my family and cousins and any opportunity I’d get to throw a ball or have a bat coupled together with playing the odd weekend with my dad helped me prepare for the trial process of county age group cricket.
I was put forward for trials for Leicestershire U15’s by Zodiac CC, a park cricket team who played most their games on western park where there would often be four games played simultaneously.
After the initial trial session, I was invited back into training sessions with the age group players and I will always remember and be grateful for the lifts into the ground I used to get from various people. My dad worked a 9am – 6pm job and often struggled to get me to training sessions, which would start at 5pm.
My uncle would pick me up on his way back from work and take me straight to the ground where later my dad would come straight from work to pick me up. If there were no lifts available I used to take two buses to get to the ground. The dedication, support and commitment my family put up with is admirable and something I will never forget.
After making the county age group set up, I joined Syston Town CC to play youth cricket, I then went to Kibworth CC who were one of the best premier League clubs in the county and played amongst some great people. I made some real friends at the club and learnt a lot about how to go about playing the game, and how others approach the game differently.
Kibworth CC at the time were a very strong team. I was consistently doing well for the 2’s and found that when I played for the 1’s I performed well but was not really given much of an opportunity to bat but more importantly bowl as much as I needed to. The set up there was outstanding and taught me that places in the team needed to be worked for and that you had to earn your place in the team. It was competitive, we had some great players including Steve Kirby, Nick Ferraby, Russell Cobb, Simon Renshaw, Tim Mason all ex first class players, alongside some Leicestershire u19 regular players. I was only 16-17 at the time and still learning about my game.
I made a tough decision to leave Kibworth after 4 or 5 seasons and played for Billesdon CC. They comprised of two brilliant overseas players from India, and the rest were all local players. More importantly the ground was a postage stamp and for my development as crazy as it sounds it was brilliant. It taught me how to bowl on small grounds against teams that were on most weekends better than us. It gave me more responsibility and also allowed me to bowl longer spells.
My county age group was progressing nicely at this stage and I was performing consistantly with the ball, and on occasions I would do well with the bat. I progressed well under the guidance and coaching of Lloyd Tennant and Phil Whitticase. I played age groups cricket above my age and done well, I was really getting into the swing of it and really thought would professional cricket really be an option as a career. Up until the age of 17 I was really playing and enjoying the sport, but after that I turned a corner and wanted to persue cricket as a potential career.
Unfortunately after representing the u19’s even after doing really well, I wasn’t called back or given opportunities at 2nd team cricket the following year. Back then there were no academies and so after the u19’s it was either a contract or on your way to play club cricket.
I went to university to complete my degree and because I wanted to give cricket one more chance I ended up doing a master’s degree at Loughborough university, who were a UCCE then which allowed me to study and play cricket at the same time, this gave me two years to try to put everything into persuing my dream. I still remember a call I received from Lloyd Tennant, my u16’s coach inviting me to first team training to bowl at the first eleven and he’d mentioned that the new head coach Tim Boon had asked for local spinners and that although I was out of the system for a few years he thought of me first.
It’s fair to say that my net session went really well and I’d done enough to impress Tim Boon. At the end of the session said he wanted me to play every game in the 2nd team and that I needed to get fit and strong to uphold a season. From there I never looked back, everyday I worked as hard as I could, bowled a million balls and improved my batting to the extent that towards the end of the season I’d made my first class debut for Leicestershire against the West Indies, and in doing so I became the first Leicester born Asian to play for Leicestershire CCC. I had some great mentors which guided and helped my progression, having senior players in the team helped a great deal and having an international spin bowler in Claude Henderson to share knowledge on spin bowling was like gold dust for me. We would talk hours on end about bowling and I’d say this was were I learnt a significant amount.
What are you currently doing.
I currently work with the spinners on the staff as well as work with the academy and age groups. I enjoy the diversity of my role, it helps me develop as a coach with the vast majority of the players I work with. I’ve also enjoyed being assistant coach for the Midlands Bunbury team in which the best u15’s play against each other at the well renowned Bunbury festival.
A few things that I also do away from coaching is sit on the board as a non executive board member for the National Counties Cricket Association and sit on the cricket committee. I also enjoy my umpiring and have umpired a few second eleven games and currently I’m on the national panel too.
What role did your parents play in the early years of your development.
As mentioned earlier my parents played a huge role in my development. They supported me when I needed it, and more importantly allowed me to make mistakes which in turn allowed me to grow. Their support for my cricket and my studies went hand in hand, and they allowed me to persue my dream for which I am forever grateful. This was not always easy and I can only imagine the hard yards put in by my dad, who came to the UK from Tanzania in the 70s with £10 to his name and a handful of clothes, he was adamant that a better life for the future of his family was in England and so settled here when he was given an opportunity. Seeing him work day in day out and grafting rubbed off on me I guess a little on the sporting front as every time I took the field I wanted to improve, even if it was by small margins.
What aspirations do you have as a coach.
I’d like to one day have a role of head coach, but I know that I have to develop a lot more skills before I get to that stage. At the moment I’m learning everyday and loving it so eventually fingers crossed things fall into place. I’m also currently doing my specialist coach course (level 4) which will help me with my development as a coach.
Leicester as a City has a significant South Asian population, any reasons to why more players from this community have not followed your journey to LCCC.
That is the million dollar question, I’ve been asked this by many people in the past. I guess there’s a lot of work required which professional sportsman do behind the scenes and the dedication required sometimes goes under the radar. A big thing in modern day cricket is fitness and fielding. Quite often many players get left behind because of the nutritional choices they make or the lack of fitness levels. A lot also fall by the wayside because they choose to dedicate all the time in education, I was lucky because I had the backing from my family to persue both avenues. I had to make so many sacrifices on my journey to becoming a professional cricketer, some people have to give up the home made meals, night outs, drinking, long nights with friends etc and for some it seems to come a lot easier because they are naturally gifted. One thing I will say is that hard work will supercede anything. I know sometimes that seems like a cliché but how much do you really want it? As Boeta Dippenaar always used to say ‘nothing that carries value ever comes easy’.
Tell us about the ECB/National Asian Cricket Council ‘Community Talent Champion’ pilot that LCCC are involved in along with Lancashire CCC & Yorkshire CCC.
The CTC is a great initiative pilot brought to us via the ECB and the National Asian Cricket Council. It’s bridging the gap for inner city cricket clubs who might have no access or facilities to play cricket or for people who simply can’t get noticed. The guys we have are doing a great job and in the first few months of it going live they have already recommended a few young players that may have otherwise been missed. It gives another avenue into our pathway at Leicestershire CCC, the more avenues we have the healthier the club will be. It’s all about being inclusive and we want everyone to know that the doors are always open for young cricketers to improve their cricket and chase their dreams.
Any rising young South Asian stars for the future with LCCC.
We have a few coming through our age groups and academy set up. We’ve just signed young Rehan Ahmed who’s a batter who bowls leg spin. He’s just finished a series with England u19’s and has impressed so he’ll be one for the future. Aryan Patel is someone else who has a sound technique and I’ll be keenly following how his progression unfolds, I also like the look of young Sam Wood who isn’t of South Asian heritage but a local Leicester lad and progressing nicely.
How important is the role of the parents and immediate community.
They play a huge role. I see so many parents whether it is right or wrong, put so much pressure on young kids. For some it works and for some it doesn’t. Unfortunately a lot of mixed messages occur and the time you have on journeys to the game/nets and back home after the game are so valuable. By that I mean some of the dialogue can effect the way the kids play or approach the next game, and practice sessions. It can have a negative effect, and also cause confusion to what the coaches are trying to say. I’d always say to parents try and find out what messages the coaches are trying to project and amplify them…quite often they will be positive reinforcement and making sure they have no fear of failure. Kids will learn most by making mistakes and sometimes allowing them to without the pressure is a good thing.
